Jessica F
'New York City' New York City is the largest city in the United States, and one of the biggest cities in the world. It is located on the east coast, at the mouth of the Hudson River, and is made up of five separate boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. As of 2000, NYC accounted for over 40% of New York State's total population, and according to the 2009 Census, the number of residents had risen to nearly 8.4 million. "Given the mass immigration of the past four decades--in the main, from Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean--the population is now more diverse than ever. Over one-third of New Yorkers are foreign-born, and the city is extraordinarily heterogeneous, home to large numbers from a wide array of nations and cultures. A new ethnic-racial heirarchy is evolving as New York has become what is sometimes called a "majority minority" city (Foner, 9). Geography It was the year 1898 when state legislature created what is known as Greater New York, which united Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the communities of Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx. It was ninety-six governmental units in all. No one had ever tried to manage a city of this magnitude before, and there was a fair share of problems that took planning and execution, but New York led the way. "Even today, only a handful of places around the globe have attempted such a feat, and those that have, especially in the developing world, continue to wrestle with many of the questions posed by the consolidated city a centurary ago. New Yorkers were the first to address the consequences of collective living on this new scale and thus to determine whether American culture could be adapted to establish the bonds of community--the terms of interconnection and mutual obligation--for a city of four, six, eight million" (Revell, 2). NYC is known for it's landmarks. "Only a few other cities in the world are known in such detail that their geographies carry ready-made significance through the medium of pop culture" (Hudson, 66). Some of the top buildings include: *'Empire State Building' *'Statue of Liberty' *'St. Patrick's Cathedral' *'Chrysler Building' *'Grand Central Station' *'Metropolitan Museum of Art' *'Brooklyn Bridge' Economy Along with Tokyo and London, NYC is considered one of the "world cities" that control world finance. Sources including manufacturing (things such as chemicals, furs and processed foods), television broadcasting and advertising. The city has also become popular to use as a backdrop for movies and tv shows, as well as being known for art and theatre. Not to mention the railway and subway systems, as well as the ocean-shipping port and intermodal shipping done via freeway bypasses so that trucks can avoid the congestion of the city (Hudson, 67). It's newspapers include The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and people can fly into three different airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark International Airport (in New Jersey). "And some of its streets and neighborhoods have also become symbols throughout the nation. Wall Street means finance; Broadway, the theater; Fifth Avenue, fine shopping; Madison Avenue, advertising; and SoHo, art" (The Columbia Encyclopedia). Culture As mentioned in the sections above, New York City is known for it's cultural diversity. With so many people from every area of the world congregated into one common area, this isn't surprising. The city has also become a meca for arts of all kinds. Film, tv, dance, music, literature, theatre, photography, fashion... you name it, you'll more than likely find it there. Many people pursue these as a career, or even just as a hobby. NYC is known for setting trends, and being ahead of the game. The tradedy of the attacks on the World Trade Center was also a big influence on the city and how each person wanted to represent themselves and what it meant to them. "Most New Yorkers' first experiences of 9/11 wwere visual, and the ghastly images of the collapsing towers were repeated in a seemingly endless televised loop. Still, the public craved more images and created them everywhere in ensuing weeks, in the form of mental pictures of Ground Zero, photographs of the missing, homemade shrines and memorials and countless art and photography shows curated and sponsored by members of the city's visual arts community. A public that had, for the most part, come to expect controversy and outrage from art during the Giuliani mayoralty began to talk about art's "healing power," and attendance at cultural events became an act of patriotism and hope" (Kornblum & Rothenburg, 255). City pride is definitely something you will find plenty of in NYC. Resources *Bevell, K. D. (2003). Builing gotham: Civic culture and public policy in new york city, 1898-1938. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. *The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/New_York_City.aspx *Foner, N. (2005). The social effects of 9/11 on new york city: An introduction. In N. Foner (Ed.), Wounded city: The social impact of 9/11 (pp. 9). New York: Russel Sage Foundation. *Hudson, J. C. (2002). Across this land: A regional geography of the united states and canada. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. *Kornblum, W. & Rothenberg, J. (2005). New york's visual art world after 9/11. In N. Foner (Ed.), Wounded city: The social impact of 9/11 (pp. 255). New York: Russel Sage Foundation. *http://www.ny.com/histfacts/geography.html#queens *http://www.nyc-architecture.com/TEN/TEN-NY.htm *http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml